About me . . .

 
 

I love being a writer! For several years I worked as a teacher and librarian. This helped prepare me for the challenges of writing books.


I spend my days doing research, taking notes, and writing. I especially enjoy learning how people lived in other times and places. After hours of research, I put my notes together to create an original book. Then I revise - and revise some more. It's a happy day when I get a copy of the finished book in the mail.


I enjoy reading and writing fiction, too. I always have a novel or two in progress, and I take great pleasure in knowing that many families now include my picture book -- The Christmas Star -- as a holiday favorite. 

 

I've wanted to be a writer ever since I was in third grade. My teacher, Mrs. Brown, assigned us to write poems. Mine was a four line verse about snowflakes, and when Mrs. Brown said to me, "You'll be a writer when you grow up," I was thrilled. It became my secret dream. When I meet with students, often one or two step forward to tell me that they plan to become writers, too.

Off to kindergarten . . .

When I was in 3rd grade --


  1. •I learned to ski on the hill behind my house. I hoped to be in the Olympics, but I kept crash landing.

  2. • I built myself a treehouse.  I planned to live it when I grew up . . . but I never did.

  3. •I was convinced that Martians had landed on the hill behind my house.  (Don’t worry. They hadn’t!)

  4. •I loved doing reports in school. (Really!)

  5. •My favorite books were:

      The Secret Garden

      The Wizard of Oz

       Ellen Tibbets

      biographies of famous Americans

         Me in 3rd grade.